Christmas Day and Why My Brother Is In Big Trouble

Merry Christmas everyone! As you may have noticed, this blog is a day late. That's because I was too busy throwing up last night to blog. But more on that later.

I had a very wonderful Christmas with my family. After we opened our stockings,  my dad made us cinnamon buns, which really, really sucked but Mom and I ate them anyways. They were frozen ones that you bake yourself. Not good. So much so that dad threw out the 2nd package of them. LOL.

After that, we moved on the gifts. My parents did something very mean to me. Last Christmas I asked my dad for an Ottawa Senator's Heritage hockey jersey. He being a Leaf's fan told me where to shove that idea.  Needless to say, I didn't get one for Christmas. So I asked for it again for my birthday. Same response, no jersey. So around Thanksgiving, I started to harass my dad for the damn jersey again. This time I got somewhere as he asked me what size and what the Heritage one looked like. I'd pretty much forgotten about it after than. So on Christmas morning, my parents gave me a beautifully wrapped box that clearly contained clothing. I opened the lid and the contents were lovingly wrapped up in pink tissue paper. As the excitement mounted, I slowly pulled back the tissue paper to reveal....a fucking Toronto Maple Leaf's jersey. Apparently the look on my face was priceless. Mom and dad were killing themselves laughing. My exact words where "This isn't even remotely funny". They got me to hold up the jersey and took a picture. My father then handed me a gift bag. Inside, in a plastic bag, was my Ottawa Senator's Hockey jersey. I was much happier to see that :) The Leaf's jersey was my dad's. They thought it would be funny to wrap it up and give it to me. I am not amused. Well, actually I am. That was pretty damn sneaky of those two. I did get some revenge though. My dad had put his jersey on their bed. When he wasn't around, I threw it in their garbage can....twice.

I also got a beautiful pair of sterling silver hoop earrings that I've been looking for for over a year. Mom did a great job on finding those. Mom was the one who got the bling this Christmas. It's a very lovely sterling silver and blue diamond pendant on a silver chain. I helped dad out with that one and he came through with flying colours, which was awesome.

We spent part of the afternoon at my Grandparents' house where we visited with them as well as both sets of  aunts and uncles and I got to see 2 cousins that I haven't seen since last Christmas. After than we came home. Mom and dad visited the neighbours while I prepped the potatoes and broccoli for dinner. We then sat down and relaxed. My tummy was starting to feel a bit "off" at that point. I thought it might have just been left over anxiety from being at my grandparents and all the noise and hoopla that went on their. It was a wonderful dinner and it tasted great. I was pretty full after dinner but didn't feel too bad. We called my Aunt in New Brunswick at 8pm and talked to her for awhile. I was feeling ok then.

At 9 I went upstairs to change into my jammies and shortly there after, I started to feel not so good. My tummy was rolling. It felt like I wanted to burp, but couldn't. Around 10pm the pain started. I knew I was in trouble.

You see, my brother and family were here on Christmas Eve. My brother was sick. He had a stomach virus that had been through everyone in his family and now him. Instead of staying home, he came here and violated our bathroom and slept in my parent's bed.

I fought it for as long as I could last night. I kept willing myself: "You're not going to throw up." But I lost the battle around 10:45. Sadly, it did not make me feel better. In fact, I felt worse. I texted my brother and told him that he's dead meat. He laughed and told me to "walk it off". Jerk. By the time I threw up the second time, I had to find a bucket because I now had stuff coming out both ends. I have to admit that I've got pretty good aim. Puking in a bucket while sitting on the can takes talent. Problem was, I was so incredibly tired and so friggin' cold! All in all, by 1:30am I had thrown up 5 times. The last time was mostly dry heaves which are the worst! I finally fell asleep and slept until 4:30am when I had to use the bathroom again. I was able to get back to sleep and slept until 8am when jerkface called and woke us up. He was calling because he was supposed to bring my nephew over to open his gifts (he was at his dad's place on Christmas Eve).  Dad told them to come over at 10. It was at this point that I learnt that my mom had been up at 6:30am, throwing up as well. I went back to bed and didn't wake up again until 9:30 when typhoid Mary (aka my brother) came into my room to see me. I had some choice words for him. Turns out, he'd also given the flu to his in-laws. His mother in law was sick yesterday (like me) and his father in law got sick overnight.

I know that my parents taught us to share, but this is a bit insane. My brother and sister-in-law left all 3 kids here and went off Boxing Day shopping. Thankfully, my dad hasn't caught it (yet) and he was able to mostly manage all 3 kids. Mom gave up and went back to bed around 11. I stayed up until everyone left at 12:30 and then I left my dad to his own devices and went back to bed. Mom and I finally got up at 4:30.  I've had a good deal of water and some flat diet ginger ale. At 5:30 I ate 8 un-salted soda crackers. I'm happy to report that they've stayed down and nothing new has come out. Mom seems to be doing better too. My brother is still in major shit with us, especially if my dad comes down with it.

I need to log off and do some laundry. My aim might not have been 100% off the get go and I think my sleep pants bore the ill effects of that. Oh well.

I hope everyone had a less eventful night than we did.

Good Evening,

Sarah

A photo of my brother *grin*

Packed and Read to Roll!

This is a late blog tonight. I really should be in bed, especially since I have to be up at 4am. But here I am, typing away. This always happens. The night before I travel, I run around trying to get so much done that I end up staying up half the night. The fact that I didn't get home from work until 7:15 didn't help matters much.

I think I'm all packed. I just have my toiletries left to pack and I'm good to go. My iPod and cell phone are both charging. I located the case for my camera. I printed off my boarding passes (you can do that for the train now) so I think I'm set.

And of course, it has started to snow. In fact, we have a snow storm warning in place. Fantastic. Thankfully, my friend Steph and her hubby are coming to get me at 5am and are driving me to the train station. This way I don't have to worry about a cab. Steph is very good at winter driving as she often works at schools in the middle of nowhere :) I'm hoping that knowing that she's coming to get me will ease my anxiety in the morning. It hasn't been too bad today (knock on wood).

Work was a blur. The party went off without a hitch and the food was really good. Everyone enjoyed it. My secret Santa gave me a new cookbook, so that's awesome. I also got a set of The Big Bang Theory bobble heads for my desk from another co-worker. They're kick ass! I thought that I'd gotten everything done at work but I remembered something while I was in the shower. D'oh. I may email a co-worker tomorrow and ask her to do it or I might just decide to leave it until I'm back. Either way, I refuse to stress over it.

I should get to bed since I have to be up in 4.5 hours. I plan on sleeping on the train :)

Just 1 more sleep!

Good Night,

Sarah

I Came. I Saw. I Shopped. It Snowed. I Whined.

I came. I saw. I shopped. And am happy to report that I have a good 75% of my Christmas shopping done and there's still a month to go before Christmas.

And I even braved the snow to do it. We kept getting flurries on and off today. I kept asking Steph to make them stop but she just kept patiently explaining to me that she didn't have that kind of power. Dammit. LOL. We did almost get blown away while scurrying between Chapters and Michaels though. It wouldn't have been so bad out if it wasn't for the wind. God bless Steph for putting up with my whining about the damn snow!

For the record, I don't think I've bought so many baby clothes in my life. I bought stuff for 3 different babies today, one of whom isn't even born yet (but will be in early 2013). Some of the sales were just too good to pass up. I nearly bought myself a new Sens shirt since it was 50% off but I was good and refrained from doing so. I have to admit, I had a bit of a good baby buzz going after looking at all the cute baby clothes today. But then there was a baby on my bus who cried the entire time. Killed the buzz. They're cute. Their clothes are cute. But they still scare the crap out of me.

Steph and I tried to solve a mystery in Walmart today. The area between the front doors at the entrance of the location we were in reeked of rotting garbage. And then, once you got inside the store, the entry area smelt like fish. Apparently, the fish smell is quite common. There's a McDonald's to the left of the entrance but we couldn't fathom the filet-o-fish being popular enough to be the cause. The bakery area of the Walmart is to the right. No fish there. And Walmart does not have a fresh fish counter so we're a little stumped on that one. Maybe they spray the area to keep people from loitering? It was rather bizarre. Our next Walmart adventure was to find the present my nephew had asked for. After 15 minutes of searching, I actually had to call my brother and ask which department the damn things were in. Thankfully, we found them and all was good. I still can't even being to explaining what the hell they are, but I hope the kid likes them. And we still don't know what the smell is. It was still there on the way out too.

My poor little phone was getting quite the work out today. I was having 3 separate text conversations at the same time. Steph took to playing the guessing game everytime my phone chimed to let me know that I had a new text message. I even managed to get a wrong number call (happened while we were scurrying in the snow so I didn't hear it ring). It was a little kid calling to tell her grandma that she hoped she had a good day. It was a adorable. And clearly a message not meant for me!! LOL.

The best deal of the day was the 1.2kg box of Catilli Smart Pasta - Rigatoni at SuperStore: $0.94. Really. 94 cents. I couldn't believe it. I bought 3, two of which I donated to the food bank. 1.2kg will go a long way for a family, so that's awesome. And it's the high fibre kind too. I'm sure my box will last me a few months.

I've also decided that some teenagers are truly insane. While I was waiting for the bus home (I wasn't done shopping so Steph left me at the mall when she went to pick up her hubby), two teenaged girls walked by. One was wearing a dress that was so short it barely covered her ass. She had to keep tugging it down every 10 steps or so. No leggings or tights or anything and it was -10 with the windchill. Insane. And I'm not the only one who thought so. Another teenaged girl and her boyfriend were beside me and the girl commented to the guy something about short dress girl being nuts and I think she mentioned trashy too. Or slutty. LOL.

Tomorrow will be a much quieter day. I have to find a place to store all the presents I bought and I need to clean and organize so that I can decorate :) I'm glad that Steph decided that shopping with me would be more fun than watching hamburger thaw. LOL.

I'm not quite sure but maybe, just maybe, the Christmas spirit might be creeping into me. But for now, it's time for bed.

Good Night!

Sarah

Christmas tree that I had in Calgary

Bah, Humbug.

It was a "meh" day but a good evening. The Big Bang Theory was pretty darn funny, my football team is winning at the half and Glee didn't butcher Grease so that was awesome. And I managed to make dinner and do the dishes in there somewhere too. I just need to get through work tomorrow and OT on Saturday and I'm good!

Speaking of Saturday, the Ottawa Santa Claus Parade is Saturday. For some reason, that seems really friggin' early to me. Why do so many people feel the need to rush the season?? CTS is already advertising that they're the Christmas station and will be showing Christmas movies starting this weekend. Almost every mall in the city had their Christmas decorations up last week, if not sooner (except Carlingwood Mall and kudos to them for waiting until after Remembrance Day to do it!) and stores are already playing Christmas music. Christmas is still more than a month away. It's insane.

I quite like Christmas. It's my favourite holiday. But I don't like how rushed it is. I don't see why it has to be ushered in so soon. For the love of pete, let November un-fold on its own. Don't try to morph it into the Christmas season too. That's what December is for. Even my damn Christmas cactus is blooming already.

And if one more person tells me that they just want a "gift card" or "nothing really" for Christmas, I think I just might snap and take them out. I like giving gifts. I don't care if it's a $2 novelty toy I found at a discount store or a $200 necklace that I've been saving up to buy, I like giving thoughtful gifts that make people smile and feel appreciated. Picking up a piece of plastic and loading money onto it is not creative. I don't have much money, so when I actually venture out to spend my savings on gifts, I want to be special. A child's eyes do not light up when they open a card and a gift card falls out. We live in such a consumer driven society that most of us go out and buy the crap we want for ourselves right away, so there's nothing left to ask for for Christmas.  On the flip side, people keep harassing me for my Christmas list and then end buying me a bunch of stuff that isn't on the damn list and that I didn't want/can't use in the first place. Yes dad, I'm talking to you. Where's my jersey!!!!!!!!??????????? With the NHL being locked out this year, you should be able to find it on sale.
I have too much crap to begin with. If I ask for something, it's either something I really need or something that I want but have not been able to justify buying it for myself.

And there's part of the rub too. I don't live in the same city as my family. So when I got home, I take the train. I don't have the luggage space to bring very much back with me, so I do end up asking for gift cards because they're easy to transport. I also try to ask for other small gifts that are easy to pack, like perfume or an Ottawa Senators Heritage Hockey Jersey. I'd love to get a new tv or a Blu Ray player for Christmas - but guess what? They don't fit in my luggage. I can't even buy one on Boxing Day - same problem.

I know, I know. Christmas is not about gifts. And all in all, it's supposed to be the thought that counts. Which is why I'm pretty damn sure I'm going to be giving a lot of "Charity" gifts this year. If people tell me that they don't need/want anything, well there are millions of people around the world who do. And I think I have an idea how to help.

Yes, I know this rant/blog is all over the place tonight but I'm kind of cheesed off at the moment at some people are frustrating the hell out of me so this is my chance to vent before bed. This way I don't lie awake all night thinking about it.

Please people - don't rush the damn season and try to put some damn thought into gifts. It's not about buying just any gift, it's supposed to be about the person you're buying the gift for.

Bah, humbug.

Good Night.

Sarah